Halford & Brough in the Morning - How Is Canucks Ownership Going To Handle The Rebuild?

Episode Date: March 11, 2026

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they chat how Canucks ownership might end up handling the rebuild their club is currently in (3:00), plus they discuss the top hockey stories of the day with Sportsnet NHL host David Amber (26:49). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to Halford and Brough. Tried to get it down low. Picked up by Darwin. And he's scored with his second goal of the cart. And a bigger goal. 83. Vancouver 601 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody.

It's Halford. It is Brough. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming live from the Kintech Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Bam, Atabio? Good morning. Adon, good morning to you.

Good morning. And Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford, in Brub of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Do you have CRA debt? If you do, Sands and Associates could cut your debt by up 80% with no upfront fees. Visit them today at Sands. That's trustee.com.

We are in Hour 1 of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's Premier Metal Recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to live from the Kintech Studio. Step Strong with orthotics and footwear from Kintech. That's a new shiny read you got there, Jason.

Yeah, I was supposed to read it yesterday, but A-Dog screwed up. Okay, we got to do the Duick Morning Drive. We have to do the Doick Morning Drive. It's our morning guest list brought to you by the Doick Auto Group. It begins at 6.30. David Amber, Hockey Net in Canada, Sportsnet, host, is going to join the program. Busy night last night in the NHL, 13 games.

Not so much tonight, just two games in the NHL for Scotia Bank Wednesday night. Hockey. David is going to join us at 6.30 to talk about last night and tonight as well. 7 o'clock, Frank Sarah Valley, our NHN insider from Victory Plus. Lots of post-deadline chatter to get into with Frank, especially regarding those teams that didn't make any noise of significance on Friday. Frank is going to join us at 7 o'clock to talk about all that. 7.30.

Eric Engels is going to join the program, Montreal Canadiance reporter for SportsNet. Speaking of teams that didn't make any noise at the deadline, what happened to the habs? Didn't seem to affect them any. They beat the Leafs last night. They got the Sends tonight in a back-to-back. Eric Engels is going to join us at 7.30. I think the Canucks could beat the Leafs right now. Possibly.

William Neelander is still doing interviews with his shirt off. I feel like that's only for winners. You can't do that when you've dropped eight in a row. Put a shirt on, Willie. Vander Cain's a shirtless interview guy. There's a handful of them. Yeah. Both oddly enough on losing teams this year.

8 o'clock Brandon Batchelor, play-by-play voice of the Vancouver Canucks is going to join us here. Canucks are back in action tomorrow night against the Nashville Predators, who, by the way, are firmly in a fight for their playoff lives at the moment. Got a huge win over Seattle last night in Seattle. The Canucks, meanwhile, are not fighting. for their playoff lives. Batch is going to join us at 8 a.m. to talk about tomorrow's game and practice,

which is an interesting topic. We'll get into in a minute. Finally, we are doing another giveaway this fine Wednesday every day this week. A $250 gift card to Golf Town. Mom, Dad, can we go to Golf Town? We sure can for the trade-in days event, which is on now.

Caller number 5 at 8 a.m. gets the gift card. As mentioned, we're doing this every day this week. 604-280-0-650 is the number. Call it number 5 at 8 a.m. $250 gift card to Golf Town. That is what's happening on the program today. We got a lot to get into. So without further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened.

Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No. What happened? I missed all the action because I'm moving. We know how busy your life can be. What happened? Missed it?

You missed that? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at BCCSA.ca.ca.c.a. Despite everything that's going on in the world of sports right now, we are going to start with the local hockey squadron, your Vancouver Canucks, who apparently returned to practice yesterday, Jason. Yeah, I would say apparently as well, because I'm not sure any independent media we're there to cover it. Batch, who will chat with later, is usually there for us, SportsNet 650, but he's been a little under the weather, and he spent yesterday resting his voice. I watched a bit of Adam Foote's scrum

on social media, and it was only team reporters that were asking questions. According to Patrick Johnston, Monday's game against Ottawa was one of the thinnest media turnouts of the season, and Pige wrote, just what is there left to ask? And hey, fair enough. Ballad. The Canucks do have seven games left on this eight-game homestand, and I honestly think one of the more interesting stories of the remaining season will be the attendance at Rogers Arena,

or at the very least, if all the seats are full, how low the secondary ticket market gets. It's that and how the young guys play, right? Are those the two storylines that you can think of? Is there anything else? Like the, what else is there? They're in no danger of moving out of dead last. They pretty much got 30 second logged up.

I suppose if they go on a run, that would be interesting. And unless you want to keep monitoring Alias Pedersen and Brock Besser in every little blip in their game for signs of life, I'm struggling to find any storylines we can really sink our teeth into. You know, we all want to know how ownership is going to handle

this rebuild, both from a hockey ops perspective and a business one, and the latter could affect the former. Sure. If fans keep coming out to watch a young bad team, in other words, if revenue doesn't dip

too significantly, then there can be patience. If not, though, then maybe ownership gets a little antsy and tries to speed things up. Maybe. I, I, that's, that's, it's, it's, Just a huge question.

That's the fear, though. That's the fear. Yeah. There's a huge question of how ownership is going to handle this rebuild. And you have to imagine that some of the things they're going to be considering is the business side of the team. You know, they must be absolutely praying that they win the draft lottery and can take Gavin McKenna. I know they'll get a good player regardless. but from a marketing perspective,

McKenna is marketable in a way that Stenberg or whoever else just isn't. Yep. Don't underestimate that part of it. That's why I'm almost certain they'll pick McKenna if they win the lottery. I'd be shocked if they didn't. Even if they do have Stenberg rated higher,

would they dare pass on McKenna? So that's the Kinnock story. They're back in action. tomorrow against the Nashville Predators, right? Yes. And why don't we start with that? Because the Nashville Predators got a big win yesterday in the NHL, and it came at the expense of the Seattle Cracken.

That's a bad loss for them because they had a lead in this one, and they blew it. Don't look right now, but the playoff chase in the West actually pretty compelling right now. The Seattle Cracken are still holding the second and final wild card spot in the West, but you mentioned that loss last night where they had a 2-0 lead on the visiting, and this happened on home ice for the Cracken, the visiting Nashville Predators, they had a 2-0 lead, they outshot the Predators by a pretty considerable margin,

but they couldn't get the job done offensively and find the back of the net when they needed to, and as a result, Nashville gets a win, which puts them just one point back of the Cracken. Now, the crazy part for the Preds is that they still trail two teams just to get into that playoff spot because right now San Jose sits ahead of them on the tiebreaker and the Los Angeles Kings have to 67 points, won more than the Preds. So the Kings are tied with the Cracken on 67 points, but the Cracken have won fewer game played so they hold that second

wildcard spot. So in other words, it's a four-team race for one spot between the Cracken, the Kings, the Sharks, and the Preds. Unless the Vegas Golden Knights continued a crater. the Vegas Golden Knights right now are five points clear of that group. But they've lost six of seven, including another loss last night. And they are going in the exact wrong direction that you need to be going in, going into the playoffs. Here's the part of the reason why I say if you weren't paying attention and maybe we should start paying attention to it is it's hard to call this a race right now in the West. It's got real turtle derby vibes to it because the Cracken have lost three in a row.

The kings are 3, 6, and 1 in their last 10. The sharks are 3, 5, and 2 in their last 10. The hottest team of all of them is the aforementioned natural predators, and they have a grand total of 4 wins in their last 10. Can I just say that I want the Kraken to miss in heartbreaking fashion? Sorry, Brummer. And not because I have a particular disdain for the Cracken. You kind of do.

but I just think if anything's going to really spur them to do something big this off season that would be it you know all the reports out there are that they were interested in Panarin and bringing in some sort of star talent I know this season started out pretty well for them right

it looked like they were playing pretty good hockey or at least you know part way through the season it's like yeah they're going to make the playoffs and if they fall out and they still haven't you know they don't have that star power yet and there's word that the sonics are coming back. They're going to feel the need, I think, to do something significant. Now, you can't force something significant, but you can sure be motivated more than other

times, right? I mean, the knock on that team for the longest time, and you brought this up a million times on the show is that they lack that star power you're talking about. And a guy like Panera and an offensive star and an offensive driver, look at their goals for. I mean, they are, they're the only team in the playoff picture right. now sub 200 and they're way below 200. They're 179.

Like, they just don't score enough. Well, neither does L.A. No, I mean, I don't want to see, honestly, I don't want to see Seattle or L.A. in the playoffs. The Cracken, the Cracken kind of came with a, like, a Rick Tocet plan this year. I think they were like, we got a, we got to tighten up. I don't know if they were leading their marketing campaigns with structure, but, you know, I think that that was just something that they felt they had to do in order to become more

competitive. And it's worked. but it's not made them more entertaining to watch. And if they missed the playoffs again. Anyway, there was much more that happened in the NHL last night. Where do you want to go? Yeah, well, if we're going to talk about more entertaining, we got to talk about the Oilers' Abs game.

The late night game last night in which the Oilers, the resurgent Oilers have now ripped off consecutive victories against the Vegas Golden Knights and the Colorado Avalanche, a 4-3 win. They call those statement wins. Statement wins. And it was kind of a statement win for the Oilers yesterday, a 4-3 win in Colorado against Colorado.

but the story here honestly wasn't really about the Edmonton Oilers victory. It was the massive, massive collision that saw Nathan McKinnon in the second period drive the Oilers blue paint and knock Connor Ingram out of the game, receiving a five-minute major, the rare five-minute major for goalie interference in the process. So Ingram got knocked out of the game. McKinnon got thrown out of the game. And then everything after that almost felt like a shadow because that conversation about McKinnon getting tossed really took over the entire evening. Is Laddie here?

I can't see him behind the glass. Hey, buddy. How are you doing? I need to get your thoughts on what happened between Connor McDavid and Connor Ingram. Yes. Connor McKinnon, sorry. Nathan McKinnon. Wow.

There you go. Wow. We all know what you're talking about. But there's a Connor Ingram in there, so it confuses everything. You see where I went wrong, right? Listeners, everyone understands that. Connor McKinnon. Don't do that.

I'm going to call him Connor McGregor again at some point. They call him CEMAC. Stop it. Don't put things in my brain. I don't need it. Nathan McKinnon and Connor Ingram, the collision. What were your thoughts? The net drives are one of the scariest things as a goalie, honestly.

At this level, the NHL level, the guy with McKinnon's size and speed coming at you, it is a terrifying proposition to try to stop him and the puck from entering the net. And I think the league has been trying to crack down on a number of those types of dangerous drives to the net and have told players, you still need to be control of your momentum when you had to the net. And even though you're touched, even though you're pushed going in, you still need to be able to, you can't just blow through the crease and do what he did to a goaltender. So

I agree he was, there was some contact, he was pushed towards the goaltender. Some. But he still, more than that. He still needs to be in control of what he's doing. I think he would have been in control of what he was doing if he hadn't, had him. Like, he's a pretty good skater. It's the risk you take when you make a net drive now. You might be

bowled in and you will be kicked out of the game. Yeah, I mean it was an aggressive net net drive. Jake Fertan was like, I've never even seen one of those in my life. You can do that and then the rest are like, you can't. You're not supposed to do that, you know. Yeah, you're supposed to go around behind the net and then skate all the way to the point. Why is he skating to the goalie?

Yeah. Weird. So, okay, there was a lot. We got long memories here. There's a lot to unpack. Go to the net, Jake. There's a lot to unpack here. First off, one of the most violent goalie collisions increase that I've ever seen.

Ever. And I mean that. This isn't hyperbolic. It was huge. Also, kudos. to SportsNet, a fine company with great technology. They had the net cam while Ingram was struggling to regain himself. And they actually got the droplets of blood from his forehead leaking through his mask onto the white ice.

It was, I mean, tough to watch, but an amazing visual because it was right there. Now, Jared Bednar understandably pissed off in the post game. I don't have the audio in front of me, but he said, the goal he hurt. It's five. But I don't really give a crap if the goalies hurt. That's on their D-Man, not our guy, which is what you were talking about with Darnell Nurse. So I saw it, and I watched the replay about five or six times.

The crazy part is that Michael's in DeBrusk on the Edmonton call, which is our Sportsnet call out of Edmonton, they were saying that this is going to get dialed back to a two-minute minor after watching the replay. So they initially called the five, because that allows you a chance to go watch it on the game. the monitor. And the Edmonton guys were saying this should probably be a two. And then of course, they make the announcement that they're sticking with their original call. So Nate McKinnon gets the

boot. It was a wild game, but good on the Oilers. Tristan Jari came in, in relief, made 11 saves, managed to get them the win. And now the Oilers got a little bit of momentum as they go to second in the Pacific Division. Yeah, still only second though, because Anaheim keeps winning. Anaheim's got 75 points The Oilers and Vegas are tied 72 points each 65 games played So we're getting down to it now

You know I know there was talk for example That maybe Winnipeg could make a run And they lost last night And now you're looking at them They played 63 games and they're five points out With a bunch of teams to leap in order to catch the aforementioned Seattle Cracken.

So the races are pretty solid in both the West and the East and the East, thanks to the Columbus Blue Jackets, who continue to pick up points. And by the way, Connor Garland, who was traded to Columbus by the Vancouver Canucks, has had two straight games with two goals. So four goals in his last two games for, Connor Garland and the Blue Jackets are just two points back of Boston for the second wildcard spot in the east. Both teams have played 64 games and I looked at the schedule. Both the Bruins

play the Blue Jackets twice down the stretch. Yeah, I saw that too. It's going to be great. And if Connor Garland keeps going the way that he's going, he's going to have somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 goals by the end of the season, the first time he has recorded consecutive multi-goal games in the NHL in his entire career. And there were a lot of former Canucks that got on the sheet last night. Bo Horvatt found the back of the net. Kiefer Sherwood for the sharks found the back of the net. Connor Garland did it twice for the second time, as you mentioned, in two games.

Is Detroit going to blow it too? I mean, I mentioned that Columbus's two points back of Boston, but I think Boston's a better team than Detroit. Agreed. And Detroit only has one more point than Boston. and they've played one more game than Boston. So actually on points percentage, Boston is slightly ahead,

and Detroit had a bad loss yesterday. Really bad loss. We talked about the Seattle Cracken having a gut punch loss for their playoff lives. Detroit Red Wings had maybe as equally as big of a gut punch because Carter Hagee scored twice in the final 90 seconds of regulation from where the Red Wings looked like

they were going to secure both points in this game to where they thought they were at least going to get it to overtime to where they didn't get anything out of it. Here's for Hagee's game winner with 15 seconds left in regulation to make sure that Detroit got no points out of last night. Let's play it now, Laddie. So the noise you heard there was obviously

because the game was played in Florida. That was also the Detroit Red Wings soul leaving their bodies after that game because Patrick Kane and Tom McClellan both spoke at length about how big of a gut punch that was and how much it stung. if they end up missing in Detroit and continue this playoff drought, you might look at that game in particular

as the one where things fell apart because there is no reason against the Florida team that, yes, a very talented team, but is way out of the playoff chase. There's no way you can't see that thing through to at least get a single point out of it. Huge loss for Detroit last thing.

What's going on with Dylan Larkin right now? He's heard. He's out. Do they have a timeline on him? They are taking it. They said it was day to day. But when he initially got hurt. He went down with a non-contact, twisted his knee.

Didn't look good. But McClellan said afterwards, like he's out day-to-day. Andrew Cops out too? They should have got a center. They should have done something other than get Justin Falk. I'm just saying. Like maybe that wasn't the answer to the problems in Detroit. I want to put this out there.

If they miss and that playoff drought continues, I wonder if the first got to walk in the offseason is Steve Eisener. No, I don't think so. I wonder. But I get why you're wondering. I don't think it'll happen, but I do understand why you're wondering. Okay, the Buffalo Sabres also continued their red hot play. They took care of the San Jose sharks, Jack Quinn with the hat trick.

But there's a couple other stories I do want to get to in what happened. Sure. First of all, the World Baseball Classic, Canada, with an impressive win over Puerto Rico. But really, the important game is today against Cuba. and wouldn't it be very Canada at the World Baseball Classic, if they beat Puerto Rico in Puerto Rico, and then they need to beat Cuba, which is going to be tough. Like, it's not like, and then, and now we need to beat like, I don't know,

Curacao. Like, Cuba's a good baseball country, but they need to win in order to advance to the quarterfinals. The situation for Canada baseball right now is so classically Canadian baseball. They can either do something where they will exceed all expectations. If they win today against Cuba, they win the group. And a very difficult group of that because they will finish the top Puerto Rico and Cuba if they win.

But as you mentioned, Jason, if they lose, their world baseball classic is over. And wouldn't it be, and I hate putting this out into the world and to the universe, but wouldn't it be so apropos of this team who is often kind of puked on itself at this tournament if they do the business against Puerto Rico in what was a very impressive victory? and then fail to follow it up with a win against Cuba. Now, I'll say this. That stupid loss against Panama is looming so large because they would have had business taken care of now already

if they had just gotten that done. I hope to God that they will not have a replica. Would they though? They'd be 3 and 0. Okay. Right? And with the win over Puerto Rico. Oh, they'd be through over Puerto Rico.

Yeah. But I think Puerto Rico might have gone about that game a little bit different. Granted, butterfly effect. Like Puerto Rico might have put a more strong lineup out there yesterday. Well, the Americans are in a bit of trouble too because they got beaten. And at one point yesterday, it looked like they were going to get merced by Italy. They came back to make it interesting at least, but they still lost to Italy. Great game, by the way.

One of the biggest upsets in the 20-year history of the world baseball classic, Italy beating the U.S. 8-6. Great drama, great theater. The Americans are, their fate depends on the results of. of Italy and Mexico's game tonight, should Italy win, the United States would advance. If Mexico wins though, by a certain amount. It would finish at three and one

along with Italy and the US. In that case, the tiebreaker that would determine which two teams advance to the quarterfinals considers runs allowed per out recorded. Against teams that you've played, in the tiebreaker. If the Italy-Mexico game goes nine innings, okay, everyone listening now,

if the Italy-Mexico game goes nine innings and Mexico wins and scores five or more runs, the U.S. and Mexico would advance. Should Mexico win while scoring four or fewer, it would advance alongside Italy? Italy. And the U.S. would be out. So the worst parlay ever.

If you want... Like, what is going on? If you want the full, so the chaos theory here and the end game for, I think a lot of people, the Shaden Freud for us, bitter Canadians would be that the U.S. doesn't advance, right? So what you want is a Mexico victory today, somewhere in the neighborhood of four to, four, one, whatever. That would get the job done and see Mexico and Italy advance. And it's not out of the realm of possibility.

It's funny because you know how you were kind of tripping over the rules and the tiebreakers there as you went along? so too was the American manager, Mark DeRosa. We don't have enough time to play this. I'll save it for later in the show. Maybe I'll do it for what happened. But the rules of the world baseball classic and the tiebreakers are very complex to the point where a lot of the managers aren't exactly sure how they work. But we'll put a bow on all of the sports stories from last night.

I guess we should mention for a second time that BAM out of bio of the Miami Heat scored 83 points last night in an NBA game, making it the second highest mark in NBA history. trailing only Wilk Chamberlain, surpassing Kobe Bryant's 81 from a few years ago. And he was the guy that most of us kind of pegged as like, if there's going to be one guy who's going to do it. I always thought it would be bam.

It's going to be Nick Dowd. That's going to do it. We'll talk about that later on the show. David Amber is coming up next. Talk a little hockey. You're listening to the Alfred & Brough show on SportsNet 650. It's Canucks Central on SportsNet 650. From exclusive interviews to insider scoops

and post-game breakdowns, we've got it all. Tune in weekdays 4 to 6 p.m. on radio and on demand through your favorite podcast app. It is time for David Amber. He is on the hotline, baby. It is time for David Amber. He will tuck some hockey, maybe. It is time for David Amber. He is on the hotline, baby. It is time for David Amber. He will talk some hockey maybe. I'm on the hotline, baby. I like the mushrooms talking.

I remember what I was doing at 23, pooping in my pants. There's a massive butt coming here, guys. No one's fighting Rick talking. No one wants to fight Rick talking. I'm on the hotline, baby. It is. It's David. It is.

It's David. Amber. It is. It's David. He's on the hotline. 632 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Halford, Brough, Sportsnet, 650.

Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Do you have credit card debt? If you do, Sands and Associates could cut that debt by up to 80. 80% with no upfront fees. Visit them today at Sands dash trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program. David Amber is going to join us in just a moment here. Hour 1 is brought to by North Star Metal Recycling.

Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We go now to the Able Auctions hotline. Our next guest is a presentation of Angry Outer Liquor. David Amber, Hockey Night Canada, Sportsnet, NHL host joins us now. on the Halford and Brush Show on SportsNet 650. Morning, David. How are you?

Good gentlemen. How are you? We are well. I think we're better than the Toronto Maple Leafs, who suffered their eighth straight loss last night, this time to the Montreal Canadians, who we're going to see again tonight on Scotia Bank Wednesday night. I watched the first period of that. Montreal was just all over them. All over Toronto.

Toronto is like, well, okay, we've got to show some pride here. Nope, none, none. One of my takeaways was that any team on an eight-game losing streak should forbid its players from doing shirtless post games. But Willie Nealander didn't get the memo. What is going on with this Leafs team right now? How can they be this bad? Ah, yeah, it's not good.

And Craig Bruvet's message before every game and seemingly after every game is the guys need to play with some pride, regardless of where we are in the standings. You know, you put the sweater on, you're getting paid to do a job. There's an expectation there, and you need to at least try to meet whatever the best standard you could bring to the game is. And you guys hit it on the head. I mean, Montreal came out and it looked like an NHL team versus an HL team in that first period.

It was just a dominant performance. And Montreal, you know, the Leafs to their credit woke up a little bit in the second period, but not enough. And big picture is, you know, it's everything that could go wrong has gone wrong for the Leafs this year, right? Both goaltenders missed some time. they haven't been as sensational as last year. Austin Matthews looks like a shell of the player that scored 69 goals a few years ago. William Nealander's missed almost 20 games with injury.

He's been ineffective at times as well. Obviously, you know, Nive hasn't been who he was expected to be. And most importantly, the whole defensive core, which in a way they thought was going to be the strength of this team. I think, you know, 3,000 combined games between the six starting defensemen to start the year. it's been a mess. You know, Taneb is hurt, sure, but just Riley has struggled mightily. Carlo has struggled mightily. McCabe has struggled at times.

It's just been a mess. I mean, when you say what's gone wrong, it's one of the biggest turn. You know, they had 108 points last year, and they're going to, you know, we'll see what they end up with, but it's staring down, you know, sort of a 30 point to crime from a year ago. So it's a massive, you know, it's trouble. Now, here's the one thing, guys. their first round picks top five protected. So the sophisticated Lee fan is saying lose, lose, lose right now

because the worst case scenario is you finish sixth worst record in the league and Boston gets that pick. You know, it'll be flashbacks to Tyler Sagan with the second overall pick many years ago that happened. So, you know, in a way, it behooves them to win right now, but at least you want to lose with some dignity out there on the high. Well, let's say they don't win the draft lottery, they don't get a top five pick

who can contribute in the NHL next season. I'm going to ask you a trademarked Vancouver question. Is this a retool or a rebuild for the Toronto Maple Leafs? Well, I think that would all depend and what that would depend on

is how big reshaping of the team you would see. And the reason I put it like that is let's say you were to discuss with William Nealander, Austin Matthews, or, you know, you use the few assets you have and you quickly get some prospects and some draft picks, et cetera, and you can kind of say, hey, we've got a, we refilled the cupboards and were in good shape. Look at Montreal, right?

They were dead last in the NHL the year after they went to the Stanley Cup final, and everyone said, well, this is going to be a five, six year thing. And between Mark Bergerman and Kent Hughes, they accelerated things by stock. piling a bunch of draft picks and prospects, developing some young players, drafting really well with the Cole Coffields and Lane Hudson's of the world, and here they are just a few years later, and they're in pretty good shape for the foreseeable future. So if it's managed properly, it could be a quick rebuild, a retool, I guess. It doesn't have to be a seven, eight, ten-year project. I guess it all depends on what Austin Matthews wants as well. Does he have any appetite to

stay in a retool? I mean, after this season, he's only got two years before he's an unrestricted free agent. Yeah, I mean, that's a great question. I don't know. I can't speak to how he feels. I, you know, the other question is, I mean, what really hamstrings a lot of teams is you can't just act on your own volition. You can't just unilaterally say, hey, you know, it was a really good run for Austin Matthews, but he's our number one asset, and we choose to move him. It has to be a discussion that he agrees to and that he falls into place with or else it's not even a starting point. I don't know. I mean, this is, this is, Austin Matthews has only known regular season winning. Yeah. The playoffs, he's been another story. But guys, they have the longest playoff

streak of anyone in the league, right, nine straight years. That's all Matthews is known is making the playoffs and having a couple of division titles and those sorts of things. And, and clearly, that's not the case now. So, um, it is going to be, it's going to be a very, I usually say that on the radio with you guys talking about Vancouver. It's going to be a really interesting offseason for the Cucks. Well, it's going to be a really interesting offseason for the Toronto Maple East this year. We're speaking to David Amber, Hockey Night, Canada, SportsNet, NHL host here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. We mentioned Montreal, we mentioned Toronto.

We've got to talk about Ottawa. They've won three straight, four or five. They just beat Vancouver, two nothing in the final of that Western Road swing, which went very well for them as they scratch and fight and. claw to their playoff lives. It's still a pretty sizable gap. They're five back of Boston and they would have to jump over Columbus, who is red hot as well right now.

But the Sends are playing some good hockey. I'm not going to ask you the obvious how important is this game tonight because it's huge for them. They all are right now. Do you think that the senators will be able to get this done given that they've kind of tightened up defensively and now they're finally getting the goaltending they haven't gotten for the majority of the season? they actually have the best goals against since January 25th.

I've been sitting here making notes for tonight's game. We have Toronto. We have Montreal versus Ottawa, which is actually a really good matchup and a really important game, as you mentioned, on our Wednesday night broadcast. You know, they're getting the safes. If they've been getting some of these saves earlier in the year,

they wouldn't be talking about making a playoffs to be talking about winning a division title. So I do have some faith in the Ottawa Senators. They're 8-1-2 in their last. 11 games. So they've really turned the corner. They're playing with purpose. The biggest problem they have right now is, you know, Sanderson, Jake Sanderson is out week to week with that upper body injury. And that's a massive loss. They locked things down against Vancouver, as you guys saw, the 1-0-0 game. But, you know, they're going to obviously need, they're going to need

guys, the Thomas Shabat's of the world and Zub of the world to really carry those minutes that Sanderson used to take. But I like this team. I went as far as to say last week, if, and it's a big if, but if they make the playoffs, guys, I think they're going to win the East. I really do. I have that weird feeling like, I know that's like a kind of a goofy take, but, you know, last year, St. Louis slid into the playoffs, and they came within two seconds of knocking off Winnipeg, right? A few years ago, Florida, not the year they won the cup, the year before they won the cup, they had the biggest disparity in points, right? Playing that Boston team that was

unbeatable and they beat them in seven games. The point I'm making is just it doesn't really matter whether you're the eighth seed or the first seed. The healthier team, the momentum of your team, the makeup of your team is what matters, the chemistry you're feeling at that time. And right now, Ottawa's got the mojo going. If they can get into

playoffs, no one wants to play them in the first round. I assure you of that. They're deep up front. They have so many good young players. And if they get Hallmark, Vezna style Allmarked and that's going to be

one of the best goalies in the league. So it's a pretty good recipe for playoff success to have the makeup of the team they have and they have a really good

coach and Travis Green who preaches discipline night in night out. So yeah, this game tonight is big and this Ottawa team I really, I do have some confidence in them

if they can make it and it's a pretty big road to climb for them two teams, five points and all these three point games and everything else. but I have some faith that they're going to make the playoffs.

Do you think Red Wings fans are starting to swat a bet? Yeah, it could be, hey? The margins between winning and losing in the NHL are so incredibly small. There could be, you know, the goaltending. John Gibson has been banged up now twice in the last couple weeks, and that's been the knock on him, right? He's got the Thatcher Demko situation of, you know,

can this guy stay healthy for a full season? And that just has not been the case. So yeah, I'm sure there's some question marks there. Having said that, you know, they've been fairly consistent this year, and they have a little bit of a cushion, but not a heck of a cushion. They're hearing the footsteps between Boston, Columbus, and Ottawa for sure. Well, they're not going to have Dylan Larkin for the final two games of their four-game road trip, and that goes in Tampa Bay and in Dallas.

So those are going to be two pretty tough games for the Detroit Red Wings, and then they don't even know for sure if they're going to get Dylan Larkin back for the next game after that. Were you, was there a team out there at the trade deadline that you were a little surprised that they didn't do more? Now Detroit did go out and get Justin Falk

and they got David Perron in a trade. So they did do something. Maybe it's Montreal. Maybe it's, I don't know, maybe it's another team that you thought was going to be busy and maybe make his signature move, but they ultimately didn't. To me, the surprise was Carolina for a number of reasons. One, they, you know, perpetually are this very good regular season team, and they've often made it, you know, two and three

rounds into the playoffs, and then they're not deep enough, they're not offensive enough, they're not big enough, and they don't win. And, you know, again, they're having a fantastic regular season, top spot in the Eastern Conference, but they didn't really do anything. They added Nick DeLoree, and no disdain. respect to Nick Delory, but I thought a massive splash. And the other reason I thought they were going to do something is because they tried to do something last year a couple of times.

Remember that the Rantanin, that didn't work, and then they tried to get martyr from the leaf, and that was shut down. But my point is, they look like a team that was ready to make a bigger splash and to do something dramatic. And I thought, okay, look for Carolina to do something dramatic, and

they didn't. So, you know, I think I might be, I think the East is wide open, and I think they might have missed a pretty good opportunity there. You know, Montreal, there's all sorts of reports that they were trying to do something and they almost got something done and they didn't get it done. But Montreal, I think, you know, is taking a really measured approach and I think they like their team and maybe they're saying we're one year away from making that massive move. They still have so much draft capital and so many prospects. You know, Montreal can kind of wade in the weeds and this summer they can do

something dramatic if they want to and maybe they just thought that was, the timing would be better this summer than right now. We've got Montreal and Ottawa tonight. It's a quiet night in the National Hockey League, just two games on sleep. But Wednesday nights, Scotiabank Hockey, still going strong. Big one for both teams, obviously, but especially the Ottawa

senators, they cling to their playoff lives. David, thank you very much for taking the time to do this today, bud. We really appreciate it. Yeah, my pleasure, guys. Enjoy the games tonight, and we'll talk to them. Have a good one, dude. David Amber, Hockey Night, Canada, SportsNet NHL host here on the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650.

I mentioned that there's a lot going on in sports right now. You've got, you know, the NHL post-deadline. Everyone's gearing up for their playoff chases. Get the World Baseball Classic on. We touched on that. Bam, Atabio scores 83 points last night out of nowhere to set the NBA on fire. And then you've got the National Football League. So earlier this week, I made our Crow smart decision that trade consummated between the Ravens and the Raiders in which the Ravens got star defense. end Max Crosby from the Raiders in exchange for a pair of first round picks. I was like, I love this deal for both teams.

It's a smart decision because the Raiders get some draft capital, which they need, and the Ravens get a stud guy that can, you know, sack the quarterback and, you know, get their defense back where it needs to be. What happened next? Well, a lot, Jason. In one of the greasiest moves in NFL history, yes, I'm willing to say it, the Baltimore Ravens backed out of the Max Crosby trade. Now, before I get to the even greasier part, I want to play, this is long audio, but it's great audio.

This is Tom Pellisero from NFL Network yesterday talking about the Ravens reneging on this deal with the Raiders, how it's kind of an unprecedented move, and how there might have been some shenanigans here. It's a long piece of audio. It's two and a half minutes, but we're going to play the whole thing. Tom Pellisarro on the big news yesterday that the Ravens ducked out of this deal with the Raiders. The reaction from other people within the NFL that I am getting is predominantly about how the Ravens pulled the rug out, regardless of what their reasoning was. This just does not happen. It has happened on multiple other occasions in the past on much smaller trades or agreements involving the Ravens. However, when you're talking about trading two first-round picks, this is not an unknown issue with Max Crosby.

Everyone knew he had a knee injury. Everyone knew he finished on injured reserve. Everyone knew, based on Ian's reporting, that he had a meniscus surgery that was actually not just a trim, but a meniscus repair that has a longer term type of a timeline. But that did not stop several teams from offering a first-round pick and more as part of a trade offer. It did not stop the Ravens from offering two first-round picks. This is not a situation where you put in a bid in an online. auction, then if you don't like the item, you return it via Amazon. This is a trade involving a

superstar player in the NFL. Clearly, they came to the conclusion that there was something they were not comfortable with. And again, it does bear mentioning. 32 teams, 32 doctors, 32 degrees of risk tolerance. Well, one team might be willing to accept, whether it's in the draft process of free agent signing a trade, is something that another team might say, we're simply not going to go there. That's why every year, we're going to going through the pre-draft process right now, you'll hear about players having medical flags. There might be 31 teams who say, we won't pass this guy. We won't put a uniform on him. But if one team is willing to do it, then that player is going to play in the NFL.

Max Crosby is a known commodity with a known injury. Clearly, something happened. He was in Baltimore today, posting on social media, obviously went through a medical process, after which the Ravens for one reason or another. And again, to your point, we have not heard from the Ravens to the point, the Ravens decided we are not following through with this trade. It does not happen often in the NFL. It definitely does not happen at this level, this type of a blockbuster trade. Max Crosby, once again, is on the Raiders. He is right back on the trade block. Other teams, again, I will emphasize this, the Cowboys would remain interested. They were the runner up to the Ravens. Other teams that I'm calling, I'm missing the calls right now from other

team trying to figure out what's going on because all the other pass rushers have gotten agreements to the Ravens now who didn't get a pass rusher try to flip one of those players. So right there you're saying, okay, the Ravens have done something shady just in getting rid of the trade and backing out of it. Did they have something up their sleeve? This morning, the Baltimore Ravens announced that they have signed Trey Hendrickson, also a prominent pass rusher, but a free agent formerly of the Cincinnati Bengals to a four-year $112 million contract. If you're wondering, where are you going with this, Halford? Here's the conspiracy theory that's making the rounds.

The Ravens made the deal with the Raiders, and shortly thereafter had buyer's remorse, because a lot of people said, you gave that much draft capital for an oft-indured guy? Two first-round picks for Max Crosby, when you could get Trey Hendrickson for just money and no picks. because Trey Hendrickson didn't come to a deal in the first two days of free agency.

This happened while the Ravens were out there making this Max Crosby deal. Like what were they like, oh, do we forget to call Trey Hendrickson? I think there was a little bit of that involved. And by a little bit, I mean, a lot of it. So what the Ravens did, and this is where the conspiracy theory really gets deep, is had Max Crosby all the way in for medical

and found something on the medical that would allow them to back out of this deal. And remember, part of the reason they're allowed to back out of this deal is because the NFL offseason technically didn't begin until today. All of these deals and trades and contracts that we've been talking about, they've all

been in theory and in principle because you can't actually get them done until March 11th, which is when the NFL regular off season begins. It is one of the greasiest moves I think I've ever seen in free agency, regardless of sport, because

they drag Max Crosby all the way across the country, got them into Baltimore, got him to run through the medicals, had to go through all those procedures. You think it was hard to find something on Max Crosby or an NFL veteran player? They were like, okay, we've got to find something wrong with this guy. Oh, found it.

Yeah, is it the knee surgery he just underwent that everybody knew about? Wild move from the Baltimore Ravens here. I'll be very curious to see if the NFL is going to levy any sort of fine or punishment. I think it depends probably if the Raiders are able to get an equal deal. If they trade, Crosby again.

Don't forget. But would they get an equal deal for him? They don't really care, right? As long as they get their picks. Just to add to the conspiracy theory, though, you've got to remember that part owner of the Raiders is none other than the golden boy, Tom Brady, who, you know, has some clout and some say across the National Football League, given the fact that he's a part owner, he's a broadcaster, he's a Hall of Famer.

Brady doing Ravens games this year? Could you imagine? And the cheaters come out on the field? It's a crazy move. maybe I shouldn't say that as Tom Brady, formerly of the New England Patriots. No one knows it better than Tom, though. If anyone can identify a cheater, anyway, it's a very, very big move and a very, very bold move. And I'll be very curious to see what happens with the Ravens moving forward.

Okay, we got a lot more to get into on the program. We are coming up on hour two. A reminder, get you what we learns, and we haven't taken a dive into the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket yet. 650, 650 is the number. Tell us what you learned over the last 24 hours in sports. We will do those at 830. Coming up in the 7 o'clock hour, Frank Saravale is going to join us on the other side.

There's a bunch of teams I want to ask them about that didn't really do much of anything at the deadline. But I will hold off on asking him about Montreal because at 7.30, Eric Engels is going to join us, Montreal Canadiens reporter from Sportsnet. There's been so many rumblings and whispers and, you know, rumors that the HABs had something really big plan for the deadline that never came to fruition.

Wasn't Matthew Nyes? Was it somebody else? I'm not too sure. Laddie was asking me earlier this morning why the Maple Leafs are so intent on trading Matthew and I. He's like 23 years old. What's going on there? He's the only guy that can return them, I think,

futures, which is weird because he's young. But yeah, I am so curious to see what the Leafs do this offseason because if they got real and looked at their roster and looked at their prospect situation, they'd be like, this is not, we can't salvage this. and is going to take an absolute miracle to salvage this. But how many times have we seen NHL teams fight reality? Yeah.

You know, and fight the natural cycle of the NHL. And that is, you know, if you get good enough for a number of years, then there's usually like some, at some point it always ends, right? And it's very rare. if you've been in a playoff position for years and years and years, it's very rare that you've got a strong prospect pool, a bunch of draft picks, and you know,

and you've developed younger players along the way. It's just, it's very difficult to do that. It's opposing forces. Yes. Right? So the Leafs are in that situation right now where they're like, oh my God,

a lot of our guys are getting older. We lost Mitch Marner. You know, like we don't have many prospects. I guess we're still going to try and salvage this? Like, why? And on the subject of, because we've talked about Shadenfreude a bit on this show, I need, I need the Leafs to get the sixth overall pick in this year's draft.

Oh, send it to Boston? Send it directly to Boston. I don't really want to see Boston. I don't really want to see Boston flourish here because I think they're going to make the playoffs. And by the way, did you see Charlie McAvoy's face yesterday? Yeah. He's a tough one.

He's had more bad luck with freak injuries. Yeah. Remember because he had the one at first. Four Nations where they infected his shoulder with an IV that they were trying to give him. He's had more freak injuries. And he's, I give the guy a lot of credit. Like,

he went up there yesterday and he's like, I'm going to take two questions from reporters. And that's it because I'm in a bad mood. And I got to go get a bunch of dental work. Yeah. I get to put this bubble cage on again. Anyway, there's a lot going on.

Things always fogging up. There's a lot going on across the NHL. A lot going on on this show. Back was in a diving suit. Frank Cerralli is going to join us at 7. Eric Engels is going to join us at 730. That's the second hour of the program. It's on the horizon.

You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. But before we go to break, I need to tell you about JanPro. Tired of Miss Cleans or unreliable service, JanPro delivers consistent cleaning and responsive support you can count on. Start clean, stay clean. Visit them at Janpro.ca. You are listening to the Halford & Bruff Show on SportsNet 650.